Do you ever wonder how bloggers use business tools and courses to their advantage? Wondering what kind of educational classes to take to further yourself in the blogosphere? There are tons and that isn’t even counting those specific to your industry! Here are some of my top picks to advance your blogging career since education is the #1 most important step if you want to build a monetized platform.

Look at your blog as a business because it is! What kind of courses do you need to invest in to see the return in your blog? The ones I always think of first are writing (of course!) but you’ll want to look more into areas you might not have needed to delve into at your prior employment.

Math is a huge part of starting a real business because you’re going to be dealing with money. Accounting classes are excellent to get under your belt as well as looking into advertising courses to better market yourself. Because you are a brand now, you’ll need to start looking at yourself as one. While you didn’t cut your own check or remove taxes likely at your previous position now you’re doing all of that and more! You’ll need to keep your own books, references for taxes, and so much more. You’ll also need to learn how to sell yourself and your blog and track everything as you go.

Some other courses to look at are public speaking/debate, communications, and photo editing classes. All of these things come together to make you blog (and you!) better as a whole. You’ll eventually want to be speaking face to face with clients, photographing outside of your studio, and editing more photos a day than the normal person takes in a year. Streamlining and learning these things from a professional will save you tons of wasted time, wasted money, and just plain frustration. It is so much better to be prepared because there is a ton of competition in the blogging community. You need to be original but you also need to be very professional. Many bloggers also ghostwrite (writing classes pay off!), run social media for brands, and tackle lots of miscellaneous guest posts and various projects.

The bottom line is- educate yourself by investing in yourself. You’ll see a major return in your blogging, writing, and day to day ease of commitment. Because this job is technology-based it is constantly changing and evolving, and so should we. You’ll never be sorry that you learned how to speak confidently in public or that you can balance your own books.

† Kaplan University is regionally accredited. Please visit http://www.kaplanuniversity.edu/about/accreditation-licensing.aspx# for additional information about institutional and programmatic accreditation.